Mumbai surpasses Hong Kong and Bejing as Financial Hub

Mumbai: Driven by high trading volumes for equities and good presence of global banking and financial services firms, Mumbai has grabbed a place in the world's top ten financial flow hubs list, beating Hong Kong and Beijing in China.

The city has been ranked tenth among the world's biggest centres of commerce in terms of the financial flow volumes by a survey compiled by Mastercard Worldwide, which takes into consideration size of financial services network besides equity, bond, derivatives and commodity contract transactions.

The list, lead by London and New York on the first two slots, include two other Asian cities -- Tokyo at fifth and Seoul at sixth positions, but does not have any representation from China -- another emerging Asian economy.

The other cities include Chicago, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Milan.

"The Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) region boasts of three cities which got included in the premier league -- Tokyo, Seoul and Mumbai due to their high trading volumes in bonds and equities," Mastercard Worldwide said in its first Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index study.

The list is, dominated by European cities with as many as five of the top ten positions on financial flow metrics.

According to Mastercard Worldwide, the financial flow dimension is an integration of five indicators – financial services network, equity transactions, bond transactions, derivatives contracts traded and commodities contracts traded -- all carrying equal weightage.

The financial services network includes the presence and intensity of global banking institutions, insurance companies and global securities companies.